<VV> Oil Pressure Question

[BobHelt at aol.com]

Hello Bob,
May I suggest that you are delving into the black unknown here with  your 
inquiry? 
There are no specs for pressures made via end plate clearances, and highly  
unlikely that there is any VALID experimental data either. Set it to the 
specs  and forget it.
 
In addition there is no pressure spec for 2500 rpm.  So I suggest  you 
stick with the known specs and data, The important data point is what  pressure 
do you get at a normal idle speed with a HOT engine and spec'd oil  grade? 
More too...If I remember correctly, the original spec was for a minimum  of 4 
PSI. but the oil light is controlled by the snap switch and there are  
several types in use with different pressure activation points. So the best  
thing is to install an accurate pressure gauge and measure the pressure at a 
hot  idle. That is your basic criterion. it should be about 10-15 PSI min.
 
Then if you are interested, measure the hot pressure at 4000 rpm and see  
what you get. The spec varies slightly from engine to engine (em vs late  
basically). But 40 PSI is about max. If the idle pressure is around 10-15  psi, 
then you can stretch the pressure relief spring slightly to increase the  
max pressure. The max pressure is NOT critical though as long as it is in the 
40  PSI ballpark.
 
IF and I say IF, your pressures are low, look first to the camshaft bearing 
 clearances. Then to the endplate clearance.
 
Good luck,
Regards,
Bob Helt
 
 
In a message dated 5/7/2012 7:58:06 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
bgilbert at gilberts-bc.ca writes:

Assuming  for the moment that the engine is OK and the problem is with the
oil pump,  is it in fact OK to run with 20 PSI? Given that GM engineered the
oil  pressure light to come on at about 5-6 PSI, then could one assume  that
anything over that is "good enough". Is it ? 



Put  another way, 45 PSI of oil pressure sounds better than 35 PSI and  that
sounds better than 25 PSI and so on but does it really make any  difference 
-
assuming that the motor is in good  shape?